Asia, The Cradle of Humanity 



285 



do, to their attitude toward one another 

 and toward other peoples. These cul- 

 ture-phases have the additional and im- 

 measurably great advantage of indicat- 

 ing stages of development — but of that 

 more anon. 



Now the coincidence between culture 

 and the activities (or the harmony be- 

 tween what men know and what men 

 do) is so close that the culture-phases 

 may be outlined in terms of arts, in- 

 dustries ^ and the other activities, either 

 separately or jointly ; and it is conve- 

 nient and customary to define the phases 

 in terms of law, or social organization, 

 with due reference to the attendant 

 faiths — for it is to be remembered that 

 only a fraction of mankind have dissev- 

 ered civil from ecclesiastical law, stat- 

 ute from commandment, justice from 

 faith. Defined in this way, culture be- 

 gins in that obscure, phase shared by 

 men and such animals as most nearly 

 approach the plane of human thought 

 and conduct (like the Bandar-log of Kip- 

 ling) ; and this indefinite condition is 

 followed by the well-established phases 

 of (i) savagery, in which the sole law 

 is the social one of maternal blood-kin- 

 ship accompanied by a profound ani- 

 mism — i. e., faith in a vague pantheon 

 of beast-gods ; (2) barbarism, in which 

 the laws are chiefly social, in which so- 

 ciety is based on real or assumed con- 

 sanguinity traced through the paternal 

 line, and in which sun, fire, and other 

 impressive nature-objects are personi- 

 fied, either as beasts or as men, and 

 added to the pantheon ; (3) civilization, 

 in which the laws relate primarily to 

 territorial and other proprietary rights, 

 while the beliefs are more or less 

 completely spiritualized, the civil and 

 ecclesiastical functions more or less 

 completely divorced ; and (4) enlight- 

 enment, in which the law is based on 

 the right of the individual to life, lib- 

 ert}', and the pursuit of happiness, and 

 in which faith works as a moral force. 

 The first two of these phases represent 



tribal law, the last two national law ; 

 and it is especially noteworth-y that 

 throughout all tribal culture the law is 

 dominated by faith, while in national 

 culture faith is blent with, or controlled 

 by, the principles of justice and right 

 established by experience. 



Classified by culture-phases, human 

 Asia loses nothing of her supremacy 

 among the continents save at a single 

 point ; three of the great classes are 

 represented among her peoples, two of 

 them (barbarism and civilization) more 

 numerously if not more typically than 

 elsewhere on earth ; she lacks only in- 

 digenous enlightenment — that broadest 

 phase of culture which all the world 

 awaited until it budded in Switzerland 

 and blossomed in America. 



PEOPIvES OF ASIA 



In the light of this classification the 

 first large question as to the peoples 

 of Asia is easily answered : They com- 

 prise an assemblage, with more or less 

 intermixture, of all the world's races ; 

 they comprise a few tribes of lowly sav- 

 ages still clad in leaves, still fearing and 

 worshiping beastl}^ associates, still cling- 

 ing to the beastly diet of raw fruit and 

 flesh, still dreading contact with alien 

 men and broader culture ; they comprise 

 also the world's best and largest exam- 

 ples of barbaric life, from its poorest 

 squalor to its richest pomp and circum- 

 stance ; and they comprise subjects of 

 monarchical nations of nearly every 

 known type from pettiest principality to 

 most resplendent empire. 



In the light of the same classification 

 it would be a simple task to answer to- 

 gether the second and the third great 

 questions as to human Asia — i. e. , Where 

 are the peoples ? How do these peoples 

 live, move, and have being? But such 

 is the vastitude of the queenly conti- 

 nent, the magnitude of her population, 

 the multitude of her tribal and national 

 divisions, that the full answer would in- 



